Heidelberg II

The university in Mannheim.

T-Mobile apparently originates in Germany. 

On the way to Heidelberg.

I told you we've walked a lot... my poor boots were new in January. A little superglue fixed them, at least temporarily. 

The apartment complex: it was recently converted from US barracks. 

Where old and new Heidelberg meet.

A movie theater named after my Aunt Gloria. ;)

Build-a-Bear has apparently gone international. 

Lunch. 

Drinks - everything's more fun to say in German.

Schnitzel.

Loved this! In front of a chocolatier.

The sign with the two faces is for the shop where we bought the chocolates.

The return-to-Heidelberg-if-you-stick-your-hand-up-the-face cat statue.

The Nekar river. 

The castle! 

Christmas tree ornaments - the women in the black and red are modeled after the women who lived in the Black Forest. Today, what we know as Black Forest Cake was made to look like how the women dressed. 

View of Heidelberg from the castle. 

...And then the batteries in my camera died. :(

Heidelberg

The first time I noticed it was on the metro, at the Charles de Gaulle – Etoile stop on line 1. As the doors of the train open, a warning plays in five languages. In French, it says something to the extent of  “Pay attention when getting off of the train,” while the English version says “Please watch the gap between the train and the platform.” I noticed it to a much greater extent when we went to see Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close at the movies this week (it was not dubbed over but the subtitles were in French). It is often difficult to translate a particular expression between to languages while keeping the intended sentiment, but sometimes a phrase is translated incompletely or completely differently and I don’t understand why.

We are currently on our way back to Paris, stopped at a station just over the border into France, and a few moments ago an announcement was made in German, French, and English telling us that we will be waiting here for 20 minutes or so. The English announcement informed us that due to a technical error, we must wait for the train heading in our direction to pass before we can depart. The French announcement, made immediately afterward, said that something had fallen on the track. Not quite the same thing. They also just made another announcement that I could not completely understand between the speed of the French and the rough sound of the intercom but which said something about a woman coming to car 25, which we are sitting in. The announcement was only made in French though, so I guess they figure that all of the other passengers can figure it out themselves.

Heidelberg was completely amazing. It is exactly how I’ve always pictured a German or Austrian city. Unscathed by World War II, even while nearby Mannheim was bombed, the city is old and beautiful.
After I was disappointed when realizing no one was going to check and stamp my passport, on Friday, we went out to eat at an Asian restaurant called MoshMosh in Heidelberg. Afterward, we headed to Mannheim for a party for two of Kristin’s (our friend from Fairfield whom we stayed with) friends. They had jointly rented out a bar, located in a school-owned building (Kristin wasn’t sure if it was apartments or if it had another function), so it was small but atmospheric and fun. And most people were speaking English, because there were so many international students.

Yesterday, we stayed in Heidelberg. Heidelberg is split in half with an “old” and a “new” Heidelberg. We wandered around the old Heidelberg, with historic buildings and lots of shops and eateries. For lunch, I had schnitzel (not with noodles like I was expecting from the song), which as I found out is fried meat, usually veal but I had pork and even though I’m not a huge fan of pork, it was very good. Kristin got ___ and I tried a bite and it was delicious as well; a little like a German version of baked lasagna. We went to a little chocolate shop where they make small chocolate hearts – nothing extraordinary until you know the tradition of them. Apparently, years ago, it was difficult and not always appropriate for boys to express interest in a girl because her governess was always present. So, to signify that they liked a girl they would give her one of these chocolate hearts. And naturally, since no boy was there to do such a thing for me, I bought one for myself.

I’m trying to collect street signs everywhere I go in Europe. Just to be clear, I mean street signs from a gift shop, not ones that I steal. I wasn’t able to find one in Heidelberg, but I am also collecting newspapers and flags, easier finds. If you’re curious as to why I’m collecting newspapers when I can only read in French, I’m going to laminate the front pages when I get back to the U.S. and use them to decorate my walls, also serving as a kind of timeline of my semester abroad.

I love Heidelberg. Put simply, it is the epitome of European charm.

Kristin lives in the suburb section of Heidelberg. She actually lives on a recently converted U.S. military base. The barracks are now used as university housing, and even as U.S. troops are finally pulling out of Germany, there are actually still bases nearby. It was also interesting because as Kirstin pointed out, all the flagpoles in Heidelberg are bare. Flags are generally only displayed on holidays, because it’s a nationalistic display, and the whole nationalism thing didn’t work out so well for Germany last time, so Germans avoid certain demonstrations of it now.

When we were in Kristin’s kitchen on Friday afternoon, out of the window we saw sitting in a tree these bright green birds that. One of Kirstin’s roommates, Maria, who is from another part of Germany said that the first time she saw them, she thought they had escaped from the zoo. Particular to the Heidelberg region, the birds stay there in the winter because it has a warmer climate than others.

To get back to our day, we also climbed up to the medieval castle that is built on the mountain overlooking the city. It was a short but steep climb, and the view from the castle was spectacular, especially because we were there as the sun was setting. On one of the courtyard floors, there is a footprint imbedded in the stone. The story goes something like there was a princess of the castle, and a knight who loved her. One night, the knight visited the princess in her room, but the king was approaching so he promised to return and leapt out the window, leaving his footprint in the courtyard below. To add to the mythology, it is said if you put your own foot in the footprint, you will one day return to Heidelberg. For a similar fate, there is a statue of a monkey with a coin by the arch of the bridge over the Neckar River; if you put your hand in his mouth, you will also one day return to Heidelberg, although the more popular practice seems to be to stick your entire head in the monkey.

This sense of romance I felt throughout Heidelberg. Everything seemed a little storybookish. As we walked down the cobblestone slope from the castle into town, we passed small, colorful cottages whose shutters honestly looked like they were painted on the face of the house.

The German people were extremely kind, and even as Kristin spoke in German for us most of the time, in the few cases I spoke English, it wasn’t a problem. The Germans’ responses in English were great. I noticed that any time they didn’t know how to express themselves or couldn’t think of a word in English, they would just stop talking, shrug a little, and smile and laugh. There was something so friendly about this. And on my part, I leave Germany knowing only how to say danke – “thank you” – and bitte warten  - “please wait.” I know that when you bump into someone and want to say “sorry,” you just say “sorry” in English because certain English words are incorporated into their daily vocabulary, particularly when it is simpler to express something that way.

The train manager just made another announcement – in French, we thought she said she was going to give us champagne before we go to Paris because of the technical difficulty, but in English she said we have to transfer in Champagne before we go to Paris because of the technical difficulty. I forgot Champagne was a place. A little disappointing.

l'Allemagne

As I write this, I am on a train headed for Mannheim, Germany – l’Allemagne. I haven’t written much this week because I am still sick from Ireland; it feels like what started out as a cold in Dublin has moved to my head. Jenn, our friend who met us in Dublin, has bronchitis and a sinus infection; I’m really hoping what I have isn’t a sinus infection, but I fear it might be. I really hope it moves out by the time I return for Ireland, because I really don’t want to have to go to the doctor and find out it’s a sinus infection only to have to try to explain that I’m allergic to penicillin.
On another note, the French countryside we are passing through is beautiful. And so different than Paris – we have passed field after field, first through flat plains and now through rolling hills. We’ve seen a couple of small villages, quaint groups of houses in similar pastels donned with red roofs, centered around the point of a church. A few rows ahead of us, there is a group of Germans who just cracked open some champagne and seem to be having a pretty good time. I think Devan and I are about to make some new friends. Glad we’re apparently on the party train.
The week, like all the others, flew by. This past Tuesday I went to meet the French high school students I will be teaching for the next month or so. Maria, also from Fairfield, is assigned to the same school so it was nice going in with a friend. We definitely were the new kids in town. It was weird entering a high school as an “intern,” for my etage, because it feels like not so long ago I was there. And really, it hasn’t been long. It only makes imagining anyone teaching high school students right after graduating from college more difficult.
We are working with three different classes in a Catholic, professional school. Our Catholic school is under contract, sous contrat, with the state – meaning, it is privately run and thus can teach the Catholic tradition, but it receives funding from the state and must follow state curriculum. This is an important part of the principle of laicite, which I mentioned briefly before. The first class we have is a small group of younger students, about eight or 10 ranging in age from 15 to 17 years old. They were selected for their proficiency in English and work ethic to be part of this class, a special course participating in a multinational project. They were especially excited when I introduced myself as a minor in Environmental Studies because their project is on sustainability in Europe. They want to learn English vocabulary on the subject – as they collaborate with England, Germany, and another country I can’t remember, their shared language is English. As they pointed out, and one of the issues we have discussed in our education class, is how France, Italy, and Spain – the Romance languages – are behind the rest of their European counterparts in their fluency in the English language (which I find their use of the word “bad” to refer to their fluency funny because from what I’ve experienced, the English of the French is so much better than the general French of Americans).
It is difficult to explain how amazing our first day was. The kids in the first class – and the other two as well - were great. I could tell they were nervous to speak in English, probably because Maria and I are native speakers, but they all eventually spoke out and were willing to make an effort even when they weren’t sure of the vocabulary for what they wanted to say. In the second two classes, with another teacher, the kids were a bit older, ranging in age from 17 to 20 years old. They had a more difficult time understanding us, and were rowdier in class. Some rightly refused to speak English at all. They are going to be a more difficult group to work with, I expect, but I still completely loved it. It was also odd; during the first class, three of the girls asked Maria and me if they could have our cell phone numbers. As Maria and I exchanged a look of uncertainty, the girls could sense we were uncomfortable and suggested Facebook instead. We agreed, unsure whether this was appropriate protocol, Maria gave them her Facebook page and we told them to search for me through her page since I don’t have an address. We didn’t think either their teacher or our professor had heard them ask, and we didn’t say anything.
But then, after the second class, our professor came up to us and we started talking. She was happy with how the classes were going, and we told her we were really enjoying the day. She then told us that one of the students had come up to her on his way out of class and asked her if he could take us out one day after class and show us around Paris, because “he even has a car.” And to my absolute shock, our professor enthusiastically told us she thought it was a great idea. I know we are only student teachers, but I still feel like in the states, this would be considered inappropriate. After she told us this, I didn’t worry about being friends with the girls on Facebook anymore.
I’ve never wanted to teach before but I have never considered teaching English as a second language, and I could now absolutely see myself doing so. It’s only been one session, and I should give it a few more before I am sure of such a thing, but if I do end up enjoying the entire experience like I anticipate, it certainly complicates things. At this point in my life, I want to be an international investigative journalist, live in New York City, go to law school, live in Paris, work as an editor/ publisher, and now teach English as a second language. Life decisions. Ugh. My problem isn’t that I don’t know what I want to do with my life; it’s that I know I want to do several things and I can’t figure out which ones I want most.
But for this weekend, I’m going to enjoy Germany. We are staying in Heidelberg, which I had never heard of but everyone we have mentioned it to who knows of it has raved about it. We should be at our train station in Germany in 15 minutes or so, so I am going to finish writing for now. By the time this is published, we should be all settled in. We are lucky to be spending the weekend with our friend Kristin who is studying here this semester. She was in Russia last semester, so I haven’t seen her since last year and I am really looking forward to catching up!
Goodbye for now. I’d say it in German if I knew – adieu? It’s the only thing I remember from The Sound of Music. The only other German word I think I know is krakenhaus, which I think might mean hospital. Maybe. Not exactly a solid base of German knowledge but maybe after this weekend I’ll be fluent. ;)

P.S. I hope I’m not jinxing myself here, but I have to brag – over a three hour train ride, my computer has lost only 30% of it’s battery life. My Dell never even used to last most of the 2 ½ Amtrak ride from Fairfield to Boston with a full battery. VIVA LA MACBOOK!